April Vistors

The first week of April we had some fun visitors!  We were so excited that they came to stay with us. Firs was Grandma Rosie from Maryland! She came and spent two nights with us.

 

The kids loved having Grandma here and enjoyed showing her all of their bedrooms, tricks, and stuff. We also enjoyed showing her our new neighborhood.  And in return she did lots of nice things for us - including Happy Meals and the playground at McDonalds with the boys. Super exotic. And perfect because it was a blizzard outside.

 

Even practicing the piano is more fun with Grandma.

Grandma had to leave Friday morning. Friday afternoon our old friend Hubert Wiggins III (second from right) arrived from New York City via Toledo where he currently works as a TV news reporter. Hubbie was one of Michael's mission companions in England. Besides hanging out with us he came to attend our mission reunion.  It was his first time coming back to Utah since he finished at BYU and made the famous cross-country trek with Michael in April of 1997.

Some of the amazing sisters I knew from my mission too.  All of these girls are Europeans (l to r: Hungary, Serbia, & two from Austria) who have married Americans and now live here.  All are amazing women.  I tear-up every time I see Lydja Marich Fairbanks (blonde in the middle.) I met her the first night I arrived in England and we shared a room together.  She spoke hardly any English, but shyly shared her pictures from home with me.  We never served together as missionaries.  I saw her two more times during my 18 months in England. Both times we shared a room again in the mission home because we had been called to train new missionaries.  Each time I was amazed by how much she had changed, how her English had improved, and what confidence she had gained.  A truly amazing woman.  Then we shared a room one last time, the last night before we left England.  Being with her each time was like a measuring stick of my own personal growth as a person and a missionary. Those were special times.

 

And speaking of missions and the UK we had some other very special visitors who were also in town for Conference Weekend.  This is Tanya.  I met Tanya when I was a missionary on the Isle of Man.  She became a very dear friend while I was there.  A few years after I went home she contacted me to tell me she had been baptized and joined the LDS church. We saw her for the first time since then a year and a half ago when we were in England. This was her first trip to Utah and it was GREAT to have her here!   She has had some-Job-like trials, but her faith is amazing. She's one of my heroes.

 

She came with her friend Joan, also from the Isle of Man.  Great ladies! They came to Easter dinner at my parents' house and thoroughly entertained my kids with their accents, personal knowledge of Thomas the Tank Engine (did you know he's from the Isle of Man? Really, the Isle of Sodor is based on the Isle of Man) and cats with no tails.  We loved it!

Any one else want to come visit? We love it!